Loeb closes on title with Cyprus win
Sebastien Loeb is on the verge of a third consecutive World Rally Championship title after winning the Cyprus Rally
The result gives Loeb a 35 point lead over Marcus Gronholm with just 40 points available in the remaining four rounds.
In the event, Cyprus became a surprisingly comfortable victory for Loeb.
He had lagged behind Gronholm during the opening stages on Friday, but closed the gap from 18.5 to 6.4 seconds during the afternoon.
Although there was nothing to choose between the title rivals next morning, Loeb launched an astonishing charge on Saturday afternoon.
Gronholm could only watch in frustration as his once secure lead turned into a 21.8 second deficit by the end of leg two.
Loeb then pulled out another 7.3 seconds on the first Sunday stage, convincing Gronholm to settle for second. The final gap between them was 21.2 seconds.
"You can never have a safe lead in Cyprus - there are a lot of things that can happen before the end," said Loeb.
"It was a good fight once again with Marcus, but this morning we could take a good lead and then I think the fight was finished
"The rallies have been really interesting with Marcus. Every time I have to give everything from the start to the end to beat him."
This was little consolation to Gronholm.
"I'm a little bit disappointed," he admitted. "It's nearly impossible (to win the title) but we are fighting to win rallies and the manufacturers' title. That's still going on."
The final afternoon in Cyprus was something of a non-event. The FIA ordered that the eagerly awaited televised Down Town stage through the streets of Limassol should be run as a non-competitive demonstration because of concerns over spectator safety.
Despite this instruction, 10th-placed Dani Sordo still managed to crash heavily, striking the temporary barriers at a roundabout and ending his rally.
This then caused a significant delay for the other competitors while the mangled Citroen was retrieved, and led to SS21 also being abandoned.
The Stobart VK Fords had made it through before Sordo's crash and tackled SS21 as normal. But with a 15 minute wait before the rest of the field arrived, there were fears that spectators may start wandering into the road, unaware that the stage was live. Notional times were therefore awarded.
The final stage took place as planned, and saw one final charge in the order as Petter Solberg struck a rock and lost eighth place to his brother Henning.
The incident was just one of countless misfortunes and failures that the Subaru driver had endured during the rally - Solberg describing his current situation as "a joke".
At the start of the season Solberg was expected to be battling with Loeb and Gronholm for the title, but he now trails Loeb by 89 points.
In fact Loeb and Gronholm's incredible superiority over the rest of the field was one of the most notable aspects of the Cyprus Rally.
Gronholm's teammate Mikko Hirvonen admitted to errors in set-up choice, and drove conservatively to ensure points once his challengers for third faded away, but even so his five minute deficit to the leaders was a surprisingly large gap.
"It's a little bit scary but it's just this rally, I'm not worried about the other rallies," said Hirvonen.
"I had a good talk yesterday with Marcus and (Ford designer) Christian (Loriaux) and I made a big mistake with my car settings for this rally and it was something that we couldn't change during the weekend.
"My mistake, but it was a good lesson."
A relatively trouble-free run saw Manfred Stohl take fourth, ahead of Toni Gardemeister, who was challenging Hirvonen for third until he struck gearbox problems on Friday afternoon.
Xavier Pons marked his return to the WRC with sixth, but only after surviving a pair of time-consuming spins earlier in the event. He finished ten minutes behind his dominant team leader Loeb.
Results:
Pos Driver Make Time 1. Loeb Citroen 4h 40:50.4 2. Gronholm Ford + 21.2 3. Hirvonen Ford + 5:16.1 4. Stohl Peugeot + 6:39.4 5. Gardemeister Citroen + 8:40.4 6. Pons Citroen + 10:05.9 7. H Solberg Peugeot + 14:40.0 8. P Solberg Subaru + 15:21.5 9. Atkinson Subaru + 17:15.0 10. Wilson Ford + 25:21.0
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